Catastrophic Failures

[dubious]

I often take my friends out shooting, and the new folks are concerned about the gun blowing up in their face. I tell them that shooting guns is pretty much like working in a construction site with powertools and dozers. I also like to say that they are probably more likely to get hurt just driving over to the range rather than just shooting my Mosin. Part of the reason I got my first rifle was because I really wanted a motorcycle, but felt is was too dangerous. I can't help but wonder... how likely is a catastrophic failure to occur? I mean a mechanical / metallurgical failure which results in an explosion in your face. Has anyone experienced this? Do you know anyone who has? Are there any stats on surplus rifles or guns in general?

Sometimes I wonder if shooting my 1943 M38 with 1954 Hungarian ammo is more dangerous than it should be....

 

[collateral]

As far as the rifle is concerned, if its in good enough condition to shoot regularly, it should be fine. Guns are made to be able to handle the pressure of their intended ammunition...now, that being said, I have heard of certain surplus ammo being WAY too hot/other problems and blowing the gun apart. I usually shoot with safetly glasses and IMO so should everyone else.

But, if you arent using junk ammo, there should be nothing to worry about apart from normal safety concerns.

I remember when I first got my sks I was afraid the reciever cover was going to blow back and hit me in the face.

 

[BADUNAME13]

It has happened, with alot of weapons, but it is rare.

The only one I have been around for was a Military M4... just came apart... the shooter just had a few scratches, and sore hands.

(Using SS109)

To this day we don't know why.
(Not anything stuck in the barrel, it was slow fire, and the shooter is a Recon Marine and a Sniper, who at that time had 1 hitch in Iraq under his belt.)

Wear Eye pro and don't worry about it.

 

[ball3006]

Next time you take them shooting.....

take a flintlock along and let them shoot it.............chris3

 

[foghornl]

There was some ammo that was loaded in Russia from 1939 to 1945 that is very hot, and intended ONLY for the Shkas aircraft machine gun.

Visit

www.mosinnagant.net

and find the section on 110 Years of 7.62x54 ammo for details.

That Shkas ammo has a red primer, and a more sharply tapered base.

 

[geekWithA.45]

Catastrophic failures are rare and exciting enough that they generally get pix posted here.

Of those few cases, 99/100+ are ammo related. The most popular is "oops, I doubled the charge in my handloads", and the second most popular being "Oops, I fired a squib, didn't notice, and fired another round after it". In shotgun land, #3 starts with "oops, I stuffed a 20 gauge shell into the mag of a 12 gauge shotgun, which neither fired nor ejected before I fired the next round."


You'll notice that all these cases follow the pattern of "Oops, I {did something widely and well known to be dumb}".

The remainder are metalurgical issues, which are massively rare.

With protective gear, eyes/ears/billed hat, the most damage I've ever heard of anyone taking was some powder burns and relatively minor abrasions and lacerations on their hands, forearms and face, and often not even that.

I cannot stress the importance of eye protection enough.

 

[Hoppy590]

how likely is a catastrophic failure to occur?

with a mosin? very little chance. both Mosins and Mausers are over built to an extreme.

any likely danger comes from barrel obstructions or gas venting from pierced primers or from rounds that didnt seat. heres where you need eye protection

as said above, most of the failures are cause by people handloading who think " if X amount of powder is good, 2 X is better!"

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Now you want a super strong military rifle. Try the jap bolt guns used in ww11. A good friend of mine that does a lot of reading about military guns told me of a guy who took his jap rifle to a gunsmith complaining about the recoil. The gunsmith asked him what kind of ammo he was using. The rifle, I think was a 6.5 and he was shooting something like a .35 remington as he could not find any 6.5 ammo. He also told me that someone did a test on one of those jap guns and tried to make the action blow. This guy was loading way way above standard ammo. He tried his best with fast burning overloaded cases and never blew the action. The barrel did, however finally burst. He told me that those rifles were the strongest made and we, the U.S. gunmakers never figured out how they made them so strong.

 

[redman900]

I have both

FATE...I own both a Mosin and a motorcycle.and neither has been a catastrophic failure.
Guess its the good clean life I live.(hee hee)

 

[fletcher]

Catastrophic failures are rare and exciting enough that they generally get pix posted here.

I completely agree. When it does happen, more likely than the sun will rise tomorrow you'll hear about it. As with any manufacturer/manufacturing process, there will be a few pieces of junk that slip through.

However, it's incredibly unlikely that a firearm will have a catastrophic failure without human error.